Mikhail Kalatozov – Valeriy Chkalov (1941)

The film is about the fate of the famous Soviet aviator Chkalov, who in mid 30’es made with his crew the first nonstop flight from Moscow to the Far East, covering over 9000 kilometers and later made the first nonstop transatlantic flight from Moscow to the USA across the North Pole.
Source : www.lenfilm.ru
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The film is based on the biography of Valeri Chkalov (1904 – 1938), a Russian pilot, who set several long distance flight records. Chkalov and his co-pilots Baidukov and Belyakov together had accomplished several non-stop long-distance flights. In June of 1937 Chkalov set the world record, covering 12000 kilometers in 63 hours of non-stop flight from Moscow to Vancouver, Canada, flying over the North Pole. He was flying a specially designed Russian plane ANT-25, which was also called RD (Record Distance). Chkalov was also a professional test-pilot. He was involved in testing the new Polikarpov fighter, that was designed to fight against the newest German fighters. Chkalov died in a plane crash during the test-flight near Moscow, on December 15th of 1938. Written by Steve Shelokhonov